1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to trim for installation to panels of automobiles by means of clips.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Various types of trims such as side protector trims are currently installed to the body panels of automobiles.
From the viewpoint of automotive applications, in order to fix these trims to automobile body panels, a fixing method is widely employed wherein clips are connected to holders mounted on the back side of the trims and said clips are inserted into mounting holes to fix said trim in place. An example of a conventional type of trim fixing method for automotive application is explained in FIGS. 5 and 6.
As shown in the drawings, a pair of holders 5 are mounted on the back side of a long trim 4, and a clip 3 is connected to each holder 5.
In the automobile body panel 1, a series of pairs of mounting holes corresponding to said pairs of clips 3 have been formed, and said pairs of clips 3 are inserted into corresponding said pairs of mounting holes 2 to fix said trim 4 in place.
The clip 3 is equipped with a base plate 3b which is slid into an engagement groove 5a provided in the holder 5 for fixing, and a catch-piece 3a of arrow shape which is inserted into the mounting hole 2 in the automobile body panel 1 for fastening to the panel.
The engagement grooves 5a of the holders 5 are directed in the longitudinal direction of the trim 4 and the base plates 3b of said clips 3 are slid through the openings of said engagement grooves 5a facing in the same longitudinal direction until they contact the closed ends of said engagement grooves 5a to complete fastening.
As aforementioned, the holders 5 and clips 3 are mounted in the longitudinal direction in pairs on the trim 4 and the pair of holders 5 are mounted in symmetrical positions so that each opening of said engagement grooves 5a faces the other.
Thus a fixing structure with opposite stopping directions is constructed and by fastening the trim 4 longitudinally, an immobile status of said fixing structure can be achieved.
Trims for automotive applications of said structure are usually molded using synthetic resin materials. When molding the pair of engagement grooves 5a of the holders 5, a pair of sliding cores are placed in the positions of said engagement grooves 5a and on completion of the molding process, the pair of sliding cores are slid inwards and are drawn through the openings of the engagement grooves 5a.
Nevertheless, as aforementioned, in the conventional trim fixing structure wherein a pair of facing engagement grooves 5a are symmetrically positioned along the longitudinal direction of the trim 4 and a pair of clips 3 are inserted for fixing into the engagement grooves 5a, the plate constituting part of said engagement groove 5a is set to a considerable span in the longitudinal direction of said trim 4 and such long span contributes to obtaining the required trim fixing force.
For this reason, the pair of sliding cores of the mold used to form the pair of engagement grooves 5a have considerable span along the longitudinal direction of the trim 4 and substantial space is required to slide out said pair of sliding cores of the mold.
Consequently, with the conventional structure of trims for automotive applications, a problem exists wherein molding of synthetic resins to a trim of less than a certain length is not feasible.
In order to solve this problem, as indicated in FIG. 4, the applicant of this invention proposes a trim for automotive applications wherein the base plate 13a of the clip 13 is slid in widthwise, namely, perpendicular to the longitudinal direction of the trim 14 to engage said base plate 13a into the baseplate rest 15a of the holder 15. Accordingly, the longitudinal span of the pair of baseplate rests 15a on the trim 14 may be set to a very short length thus enabling reduction of the space needed to slide out the sliding cores of the mold. Consequently, trims of shorter length may also be molded successfully.
Nevertheless, in order to accomplish slide-in engagement of the clip 13 under this invention, it is necessary for the top end (the position marked B in FIG. 4) of the baseplate rest 15a of said holder 15 to be positioned further in towards the automobile body panel 11 as compared with the position of the side end (the position marked A in FIG. 4) of the trim 14.
For this reason, in order to effectively install said trim 14, it becomes necessary to provide recessed groove 11a to accept the base plate 13a of the clip 13. The depth of said recessed groove 11a should be, as aforementioned, sufficiently deep to accept the inwardly protruding baseplate 13a of the clip 13. Consequently, considerably deep drawing becomes necessary in the press working of the automobile body panel 11, which may cause problems in the press working process.
On the other hand, it may also be possible to mold the trim 14 itself in a deeper indented shape, but in this case the overall height of the trim becomes too great for it to be employed for automotive application.
This invention therefore aims at providing, through satisfactory molding, a trim suitable for installation to the panels of automobile bodies, which requires no modification to standard press working processes for automobile body panels.